The East Doc Platform (EDP) unveiled its 2026 award winners on March 24 at the French Institute in Prague, distributing 16 prizes across documentary projects at various stages of development — from early development through post-production.
The evening’s top honour, the Silver Eye Award, went to Inside (Slovakia/Croatia), directed by Dorota Vlnová, a 15-minute post-production piece praised by the jury for its “innovative and poetic cinematic approach” to abortion rights. A Special Mention was awarded to Animals of the East, directed by Anna Ďurišíková and Andrej Kolenčík (Slovakia), for its portrait of empathy as a radical act.
Two Golden Funnel Awards were handed out: the feature prize went to Children of the Moon Land (Slovakia/Czech Republic/France), directed by Roman Ďuriš, for its “magical visual experience” capturing Romani siblings’ lives; the series prize went to World Divided (Slovakia), directed by Soňa Nôtová and Štefan Straka, for its unconventional approach to serial storytelling.
The Czech Television Award (CZK 150,000) went to Not So Far Away Places (France), a project examining Russia’s prison system from within. The HBO Award (EUR 2,000) honoured Romanian-French project nava mama, directed by Ana Vijdea, while the Docs Up Fund Award (EUR 2,000) recognised the Ukrainian-Swedish-Belgian co-production Crossing Oxus, directed by Svitlana Lishchynska.
Other winners included I Had a Dream about an Elephant (Ex Oriente Fine Cut Award); I Was Told to Save the World (Cut Thru the Noise Award and Pitch the Doc Prize); EL DORADO (DocsBarcelona Pro Award); Two of Us (DOK Leipzig Co-Pro Market Award); House in a Bottle (DAE Talent Encouragement Award and Baltic Sea Docs Award); Dance with Me (East-West Talent Lab Award); and Stitch by Stitch (Sheffield DocFest Networking Award).
The East Doc Platform is organised by the Institute of Documentary Film, which has supported Central and Eastern European documentary cinema since 2001.
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Featured Image: Institute of Documentary Film – Štìpán Lohr
